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I painted this and thought i did pretty good, Till i got a good pic and zoomed in. I hate that...

Don't get to bummed about it,from what I can see the mini looks really good,and you have to take into account most people aren't going to be examining your work that closely.
What's funny to me is that I just got a magnification lamp and after close scrutiny of a lot of my minis I had a similar reaction as you did.
However for table top..they're just fine.
Don't get to discouraged man,just keep on painting.

I agree with FITZZ, your paint job looks great. If you have a perfectionist perspective about painting (unfortunately like me), you will dislike everything you do and get discouraged and want to put away the paints. Your captain is painted to a above average level and is much better than table top quality

dude, thats really good...dont beat youself up, besides, even when people do look that close, they wont see the flaws like you see them, they dont know what they are looking for.

That's pretty good!! Really nice job on the fire-like sword and the letters on the banner is better than anybody else could do!

thanks guys , you are prolly right, im looking at it way too hard, i will however work harder .

I think most people look at someone else's paint job and do a good job of liking the stuff that's cool, and gently pointing out the stuff that needs work. Jerks will look at someone else's paint job and focus only on what sucks.

You wouldn't be a jerk to someone else, right? So don't be a jerk to yourself! Seeing the flaws is important because it helps you do better next time, but if you let that part of it suck out all your pleasure from a nice paint job--and if you ask me, this is pretty sweet--you'll just end up putting your brushes down.

Anyway, I wish I could paint this well. =)

Lovin the sword on the captain, it looks so sick!

Normal pictures will almost always make a model look worse than he actually is. There's a tutorial about lightboxes/photography, look into it in the P&M section!

It does look good, so keep up the good work and don't rest those brushes!

FITZZ wrote: Don't get to bummed about it,from what I can see the mini looks really good,and you have to take into account most people aren't going to be examining your work that closely.
What's funny to me is that I just got a magnification lamp and after close scrutiny of a lot of my minis I had a similar reaction as you did.
However for table top..they're just fine.
Don't get to discouraged man,just keep on painting.

Fitzz has it dead on, dont get discouraged.
Think positive, you now see potential problems for the next peice and can take steps to prevent such mistakes in the future. thus becoming a better painter. every mistake you identify, every 'not just right' tick, teaches you something for later.
Also remember that were our own worst critics and no matter the imput we always judge our own work harder than any other.
So if i can offer a little advice its this.
A. learn from what you dont like, but also identify what you do like.'
B. never repaint, keep all your finished minis.
C. dont be to hard on your painting. (ya its hard to take a compliment if you dont belive the work is up to the praise its getting, but give people the benifit to look at something and judge for them selves if they like it or not.)

Either way there are alot of things you did really well on this mini.

The model looks great! I can't see what you don't like about it

Hawkins wrote:
B. never repaint, keep all your finished minis.

Not one step back! Learn and move on.

It also depends on how you're planning on using this mini. If you're using him to play then he needs to look his best from about two to six feet away. This means you need to exaggerate contrasts, emphasize details and don't sweat making gradients super smooth. Up close it'll look ridiculous, but from across the table it'll be great. If you're planning on entering a contest or using it for a photo shoot then it needs to be much more smooth and subtle since everyone's going to be much closer. Miniature painting actually has a lot in common with theatrical makeup and scene painting. It's designed to look good and 'read' from 20' to 100' feet away. Up close ... it looks quite hideous.

My general tactic when I'm trying to figure out if a mini "works" or not is to put it on the table and lean back in my chair. If I can still notice the problem I take my glasses off. I usually find that I really need to go -more- over the top, not less.

My only suggestions regarding this miniature would be to add some thin black lines around things like where his head meets his armour and where his cloak flows over his pauldrons. It'll help make them look like separate things, not pieces of the same piece of metal that have been painted different colours.

(EDIT)

To try and make it clearer what I was on about I loaded the your pic into GIMP and using a 50% opacity brush (to ham-handedly simulate black lining with wash) went around some of the areas where I'd add some blacklining. In addition to the things mentioned above note the belt buckle and seals and awards on the cape.

Thanks for the feedback and advice everyone.
I will definitely take it all on board, i don't get to play very often and enjoy the painting and modeling side of the game more than anything,
I will see how i go with my new dreadnought and post some picks up.

What`s wrong with this model? :O
Many of us would be happy to be able to paint like You!

Kaptin Elwazz wrote:
What`s wrong with this model? :O
Many of us would be happy to be able to paint like You!

Agreed. If the rest of your army turns out anywhere near that good, you should be proud of it.

warpcrafter wrote:

Kaptin Elwazz wrote:
What`s wrong with this model? :O
Many of us would be happy to be able to paint like You!

Agreed. If the rest of your army turns out anywhere near that good, you should be proud of it.

agreed also, besides, after close inpection of the model for 5 minutes i still dont see any flaws...